Three ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Warri South Local Government Area were reportedly held hostage at Oki street, Okere road, Ward 4 unit 19 after the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BIVAS) machine brought for the presidential and national assembly elections in the area clashed.
The adhoc staff who arrived the polling units very late on Sunday to commenced the postponed election around 2:30pm were confided to their seat till evening when journalists came to the scene.
It was learnt that angry voters who had waited endlessly to exercise their right to vote veered their anger on the three ad-hoc staff ordering them not to move an inch from where they were seated.
Earlier, at the INEC Secretariat, an official of INEC was heard telling the E.O in company of DSS officials in Warri South that some INEC staff were in danger and needed to be rescued but couldn’t come to their aid eventually as the voter overwhelmed them.
The angry voters protested that the Electoral Officer in Warri South, Mr. Kingsley Ogbor had already compromised the elections in the council area, accusing him of trying to subvert their rights to vote.
One of the voters alleged that the adhoc staff incurred the anger of the people when she started allowing manuel voting against the acceptable norm of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BIVAS) before voting.
Lamenting her ordeal, Adeleke Balikiz Yetunde, one of ad-hoc staff said; “The BVAS clashed when were trying to reboot it. We call the RAC because they said it was a technology problem. They said they didn’t reconfigure it to read today (Sunday) because it was till reading yesterday (Saturday). So we became stuck as a result. Now they’re accusing me of collecting N50,000, I don’t know anyone here and I didn’t collect any money.
The two other adhoc staff, Udoh Stephanie and Theresa Igein, lamented that the Supervisory Polling Officers (SPO’s) dumped them at the polling unit and left without security when they knew the BIVAS was not configured properly.
“We’re supposed to do the work since yesterday but because of no voting took place here, they moved the exercise to today. Alot of our colleagues pulled out and now I am regretting not pulling out, Adeleke added.
One of the community leaders, said it is unfortunate that the machine clashed saying “I can assure you that anything will happen to her”.
Another anger voter who gave his name as Rev. Charles said;”We have been here since yesterday when the rain started falling. We waited till night and nothing happened. To me the INEC officials are not been sincere to us, this is the not the way to treat citizens. Are they saying that we should leave here without voting, he queried.
As of 6:45pm when one of our correspondent left the unit, the three frightened ad-hoc staff were still being held with one of them,Yetunde crying and lamenting for taking up the job.